© PAAntibiotics should be used more sparingly, experts said.
It came as new research found at least one in five prescriptions by family doctors should never have been issued, fuelling antibiotic resistance.
Health officials urged GPs to rein in prescribing of the drugs, amid warnings that routine hospital operations could become too dangerous if common medications become ineffective.
Leading family doctors said the findings were "extremely disappointing," but said GPs should not be blamed for handing out so many needless drugs.
The study by Public Health England (PHE) and Imperial College London found British doctors were twice as likely as those in the Netherlands to prescribe the drugs.
Overuse of antibiotics fuels the rise of drug-resistant superbugs, which kill 5,000 a year in the UK.
The medication only works against bacterial infections, when the vast majority of coughs, colds and sore throats are caused by viruses.
The study which tracked GP practices across England found at least one in five prescriptions for antibiotics were inappropriate.
Almost six in ten patients with a sore throat were prescribed antibiotics - when around 13 per cent had a bacterial case, requiring it, the research found. The drugs were prescribed for more than 40 per cent of coughs, when just 10 per cent were appropriate. And almost nine in 10 patients with a sinus infection received the drugs - when only around one in ten should have.
In numbers | Antibiotic resistanceMore than 38 million courses are handed out by GPs each year - suggesting around 7.5 million were needless.
193 countries
Number whose officials have signed up the UN declaration to tackle the threat of high levels of antibiotics
700,000 deaths
Per year as a result of drug resistant infections TB, HIV and malaria
10 million deaths
The UN's projected estimates by 2050, as a result of drug-resistant infections if no action is taken
One in four
The proportion of antibiotic prescriptions - 10 million in total - which Nice said were likely to be unnecessary in 2015
2.7 million
The drop in the number of antibiotics prescribed in 2016 compared to 2015, as a result of raising awareness among doctors and patients, according to Health Minister Jeremy Hunt
64 per cent
The proportion of antibiotics which contain penicillin, by far the most common for humans, compared with 21.7 per cent for antibiotics sold for animal use (Public Health England 2015)
Mr Hunt called for urgent action to cut prescribing levels.
He said: "Drug-resistant infections are one of the biggest threats to modern medicine and inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics is only exacerbating this problem.
"We risk a world where superbugs kill more people a year than cancer and routine operations become too dangerous."
Around 160,000 people die of cancer in the UK annually.
The findings were published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
Professor Paul Cosford, PHE medical director said: "Using antibiotics when you don't need them threatens their long term effectiveness and we all have a part to play to ensure they continue to help us, our families and communities in the future. This publication highlights the role GPs can play and I urge all practices to look at ways they can reduce their inappropriate prescribing levels to help make sure the antibiotics that save lives today can save lives tomorrow."
Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, Chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Today's figures are extremely disappointing but they must not be used as an excuse for criticising GPs who are working their hardest to reduce antibiotic prescribing, whilst grappling with countless other workload pressures and a shortage of GPs.
"If GPs do prescribe antibiotics, it is because, in their expert opinion, they are the most appropriate treatment available, given the unique circumstances of the patients before us.
"However we are still coming under considerable pressure from some patients who need to understand that antibiotics are not a 'catch all' for every illness," she said.
In recent years, the UK has led a drive to raise global awareness of the threat posed to modern medicine by antimicrobial resistance.
Around 700,000 people around the world die annually due to drug-resistant infections including tuberculosis (TB), HIV and malaria.
If no action is taken, it has been estimated that drug-resistant infections will kill 10 million people a year by 2050.
In a linked commentary, chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies said: "Antibiotics are unique among drugs since the more they are used, the less effective they become because bacterial resistance is likely to develop."
She has previously warned that antibiotic resistance poses a "catastrophic threat" on a par with terrorism and climate change.
Comment: Antibiotic resistance issue is a huge threat to public health, and while many are crying "don't blame the GPs", they are the front lines where the problem is actually manifesting. A change in prescribing habits seems to be the only way to actually curb this plague. And as pharmaceutical interventions continue to fail a turn to natural antibiotics may become an emerging trend.